Impeachment committee adjourns for the day

The latest from today's meeting of the Illinois House Impeachment Inquiry Committee.

Live audio/video of today's hearing

The latest from today's meeting of the Illinois House Impeachment Inquiry Committee:

2:30 p.m.: The Illinois House committee that will decide whether to recommend Gov. Rod Blagojevich's impeachment has finished today's session, which consisted mostly of hearing from Blagojevich attorney Edward Genson.

During a session lasting about three hours, Genson repeatedly told committee members that none of the testimony from the committee hearings to date has provided "clear and convincing" evidence that the Democratic governor should be impeached.

At one point, Genson seemed to grow frustrated with the questions from committee members.

"Is anyone here going to stick up for the governor?" he said.

House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie, a Chicago Democrat who is chairing the committee, answered that she would be glad to have the governor speak on his own behalf in front of the panel.

Genson said earlier today that Blagojevich would not testify to the committee. But just after today's session ended, Genson said the governor still might change his mind.

Currie adjourned the committee until "the call of the chair," which means she will announce the next meeting date at some point in the future.

The next date likely depends on the outcome of a Jan. 5 hearing in Chicago. That's when federal prosecutors plan to ask a judge for permission to let the House committee hear some wiretap evidence from the federal criminal case against the governor.

U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald previously has said the wiretap evidence shows that Blagojevich was trying to auction off the U.S. Senate seat recently vacated by President-elect Barack Obama.

Blagojevich and Genson say the governor has not done anything wrong.

1:31 p.m.: House lawmakers are continuing to question Edward Genson, the attorney representing Gov. Rod Blagojevich in his potential impeachment.

Genson said today that his client won't testify in front of the committee.

Responding to Genson's argument that Blagojevich has not committed any criminal conduct, Rep. Lou Lang, D-Skokie, said non-criminal conduct could be grounds for impeachment.

Lang said he believes that a non-criminal violation of the Illinois Constitution "is still a violation of the governor's constitutional oath."

"The fact is that it's a crime in the state of Illinois to do a public act for value. Whether somebody takes you up on that offer is irrelevant," Lang said, referring to wiretap evidence. Federal prosecutors allege Blagojevich tried to auction off President-elect Barack Obama's vacant U.S. Senate seat.

"There's nothing in these tapes that says he did anything," Genson said.

Genson again argued that the wiretaps were illegally obtained and should not be considered by the committee.

12:44 p.m.: House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie, who is chairing the special House committee considering whether to recommend Gov. Rod Blagojevich's impeachment, just told the committee that it might get access to some of the wiretap evidence cited by federal prosecutors in their allegations against the governor.

A hearing has been set for Jan. 5 in Chicago to consider federal authorities' request to make some of the evidence available to the House committee, Currie said. She said she didn't know yet exactly which recordings might be available.

12:35 p.m.: Attorney Edward Genson has wrapped up his presentation to a special Illinois House committee, in which he advised committee members they don't have sufficient cause to recommend the impeachment of Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

Genson said he's been hamstrung in his defense of the governor for various reasons, including the inability to subpoena certain witnesses he sought and the inability to cross-examine people who already have testified.

"This is a shadow. We are fighting shadow," he said.

Testimony that the committee has heard so far does not show the governor committed any impeachable conduct, Genson said. The testimony has covered a wide range of topics, including the $2 million-plus purchase of flu vaccine from overseas in 2004 that never was allowed into this country.

Genson called that episode a mistake.

"It's bad judgment but certainly not impeachable," he said.

Lawmakers on the committee now are questioning Genson.

11:55 a.m.: Gov. Rod Blagojevich's attorney, Edward Genson, has begun telling members of a special House committee why he thinks they lack the grounds to recommend Blagojevich's impeachment.

He just told the committee that he has no copies of the wiretaps that federal prosecutors have described in their allegations that Blagojevich tried to sell off President-elect Barack Obama's vacant U.S. Senate seat. Prosecutors have released transcripts of the words spoken by Blagojevich in the wiretaps.

"We don't know the context in which they were said," Genson said. "It's just talk."

The bottom line, he said, is that nothing in the transcripts shows that anyone was asked to give money or anything else in exchange for the Senate appointment.

Genson also has been reading from a report that another House committee issued about a decade ago when it considered the impeachment of then-Supreme Court Justice James Heiple. That committee eventually decided not to recommend Heiple's impeachment for his off-the-bench conduct, including his behavior toward police during multiple traffic stops.

Genson began today by renewing his request for the committee to subpoena some high-level aides to Obama. House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie, a Chicago Democrat who is chairing the committee, turned down Genson's request.

The aides' testimony would have showed that Blagojevich did nothing wrong as he considered a replacement for Obama in the U.S. Senate, Genson said.

U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald asked the committee not to permit testimony from the aides because it could interfere with his office's ongoing criminal investigation.

Genson told Currie that Fitzgerald's request was inappropriate.

But Currie responded: "I have no desire to put that investigation at risk. Neither does any other member of the committee."

11 a.m.: The Illinois House committee that will recommend whether Gov. Rod Blagojevich should be impeached has just resumed work for the day.

Today, the spotlight is expected to focus on Blagojevich attorney Edward Genson as he makes a case that there is insufficient evidence to impeach the two-term Democratic governor.

The committee was created in the wake of Blagojevich's Dec. 9 arrest on federal corruption charges. The 21-member panel has been examining the criminal allegations against the governor, as well as allegations that he has abused his powers as governor through such actions as the expansion of a health care program despite lawmakers' objections.